And, another catchup post...
We camped at Anastasia National Park again for a relaxing March break with family in 2022. Very soon, a Red-tailed Hawk was in the trees around the camp sites. It was catching lizards and geckos running the tree branch moss.
 |
| Red-tailed Hawk |
 |
| Red-tailed Hawk |
One early morning birding run was pretty successful with some lifers.
 |
| male Eastern Towhee (lifer) |
 |
| female Eastern Towhee (lifer) |
 |
| Northern Mockingbird |
 |
| Great Egret |
 |
| Great Egrets roosting |
 |
| Anhinga |
 |
| Anhinga sunning |
 |
| Eastern Phoebe |
 |
| Brown Pelican |
 |
| Great Egret |
 |
| Great Egret |
The Northern Cardinal is not strange to us up north, but their colours seem more vibrant here somehow.
 |
| male Northern Cardinal |
 |
| female Northern Cardinal |
 |
| Carolina Wren pair |
 |
| Grey Catbird |
A wood stork was along the roadside. It had a fish hook stuck in the fleshy part of it's bill. A couple of us flagged down the park rangers, but they didn't seem too concerned - apparently it's been doing fine with it as it is.
 |
| Wood Stork |
 |
| Wood Stork |
 |
| Wood Stork |
 |
| Red-tailed Hawk |
 |
| Great Blue Heron |
 |
| Great Blue Heron |
 |
| White Ibis |
 |
| juvenile White Ibis |
 |
| Brown Pelican |
 |
| Bottlenose Dolphin |
 |
| Brown Pelican and Bottlenose Dolphin |
 |
| Brown Pelican waiting to grab injured fish from Bottlenose Dolphin |
 |
| Bottlenose Dolphin |
 |
| Gopher Tortise |
And... Finally! After many times attempting to even get a camera aimed on an osprey diving, I finally at least got a picture of some of the sequence. Although the impact shot would be great, this was part of it and got captured.
 |
| Osprey |
 |
| Osprey |
 |
| Osprey with fish |
 |
| Osprey with fish |
So, this was a pretty exciting scene to see, and get a few distant pictures of. These are cropped shots. An Osprey did the work of finding and catching a fish, but a much bigger Bald Eagle took opportunity to chase and force it to drop the fish. The Eagle caught it in mid air and flew off the victor.
 |
| Bald Eagle chasing Osprey with fish |
 |
| Bald Eagle and Osprey |
 |
| Bald Eagle and Osprey |
 |
| Bald Eagle with captured fish |
 |
| Wilson's Plover (lifer) |
 |
| Great Egrets |
 |
| pair of Black-crowned Night-Heron |
 |
| Palm Warbler (lifer) |
 |
| Ground Dove (lifer) |
 |
| Black Skimmer (lifer) |
A great vacation with lots of time to enjoy His handiwork.
